New Records of Coral Reef Fishes from Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Andaman Nicobar Islands situated in the Bay of Bengal between 6°45´-13 45´N and 92°10´-94°15´E, consist of 352 islands 220 islets and rock and cover a distance of almost 470 km over North South, with a coastline of 1962 km, and bring in for India an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 600 thousand sq km. The coast is under the influence of a diverse set of oceanographical and ecological conditions. The shelf topography of these islands show frequent rises supporting coral reefs, which are characterized as fringing reefs on the eastern side and barrier reefs off west coast; the depressions are known as passages and straits. Besides coral reefs, the shore is composed of rocky and sandy areas and vast stretches of Mangrove swamps, also few freshwater rivers and streams. A comprehensive and authoritative account of fishes of the Indian region including Andaman and Nicobar Islands was published by Francis Day (1870, 1875-78 and 1888). Herre (1941) listed 490 species of fishes. Talwar (1990) prepared a comprehensive list of fishes consisting of 724 species, followed by a supplementary list by Kamla Devi (1991) containing 71 species of fish. The recent developments in the fish taxonomy of these Islands are the works by Kamla Devi and Rajan (1991), Mishra and Krishnan (1992), Krishnan and Mishra (1992), Dhandapani and Misra (1993), Rajan (2001 a, 2001b, 2003, 2009), Rajan et al. (1992, 1993a, 1993b, 2012), Kamla Devi et al. (1993), Kamla Devi and Rao (1997, 2003a, 2003b, 2007), Rao et al. (1992, 1992a, 1992b, 1994, 1993a, 1993b, 1997, 2000), Rao (2003, 2009), Rao and Kamla Devi (1996, 1997a, 1997b, 1998, 2004), Soundararajan and Dam Roy (2004), Remadevi et al. (2010) Rajaram et al. (2007), Ramakrishna et al., 2010. Smith-Vaniz, 2011, Smith-Vaniz & Allen (2012) and Rajan and Sreeraj (2014).